Cocteau Twins 1983

Cocteau Twins - Sugar Hiccup (1983)

What's amazing about this most exquisite pop tune is that it's a blueprint for what was to become The Cocteau Twins most famous record Heaven Or Las Vegas which was still 7 years away at this stage. It's also the signpost for all future great Cocteau Twins tunes.

Sugar Hiccup is a truly historic moment in pop. This is where Cocteau Twins emerged out of the post-punk and goth jungle with a lustrous template of future pop which would eventually lead them to becoming music icons.

Someone asked me in the mid 90s "Why on earth are you still listening to this?" As if it was the most anachronistic and lame thing to be spending my time doing. As if to say "You left high school five years ago. Grow up. This is so 80s it's embarrassing that you are still listening to this right now" This was a dumb comment then, as it is now.

What they were really saying was: "Timmy why are you listening to one of the most delightful tunes in history of pop music?"

Timmy: "Gee I dunno because it's the best!"

For new artists The Cocteau Twins are still a popular name to drop as an inspiration in interviews apparently. They ended up becoming one of the most influential groups ever. The thing is nobody who has employed a Cocteau aesthetic has ever bettered them. Not one artist influenced by them has come anywhere near capturing their essence. That would be impossible due to their supreme uniqueness. Even capturing their spirit or showing a proper understanding what they were achieving artistically seems elusive to the countless artists who have cited them as influence.  

Cocteau Twins - When Momma Was Moth (1983)

If you stripped the vocals and drums off here, this would sound like a Burzum intro from 1992. 

Also this is produced by John Fryer, just before The Cocteau Twins took over producing their own records. Nobody talks about him any more but he was good at the ole producing and stuff. I mean this fella fiddled the knobs on Song To The Siren as well as for 80s legends Fad Gadget, Depeche Mode, Clan Of Xymox etc. He later produced Nine Inch Nails & Pale Saints.

Impressively Cocteau guitarist Robin Guthrie quickly became a consummate producer so by 1984 he was also producing other artists. By the time he got to 1987 he had produced some legendary records for some great artists like Felt, Gun Club, Edwyn Collins, Dif Juz & AR Kane. Not a bad roll call for somebody who'd been producing for less than five years.

Anyway this has an epic nocturnal vibe. Their goth-y post-punk moments are underrated. Also very bloody strange.

Roy Montgomery - Scenes From The South Island

Roy Montgomery - Winding It Out On The High Country (1995)

My favourite thing is when he does the space-rock jams. He's just so good at it. The way he gets his guitar to sound like a cosmic orchestra with just a few fx is remarkable. 

Why are the aliens landing in an isolated corner of an island at the end of the earth?  

Roy Montgomery - Twilight Conversation (1995)

A wonderfully restrained atmospheric excursion where every meditative second is captivating. Pure hermetic psychedelia.

 

Roy Montgomery - The Road To Diamond Harbour

This is the vibe. The Two Lane Blacktop/Zabriskie Point/Vanishing Point vibe. Blow out the mutherfuckin cobwebs like we're on the xpressway with fellow travellers Pete Gutteridge and Chris Heazlewood. Motorin to the end of the earth until we fall off.

*The sound of this recording is what it's all about. The two albums, the previously posted Temple IV and Scenes Of A South Island, were recoded during the same sessions. Together they are masterpiece of four track sound engineering. My best mate from high school was a sound engineer he could probably tell you the ins and outs of why this album sounds so great. Me, I've just got layman's terms and crap poetic analogies. The guitar tone and guitar sound are like nothing I've ever heard. This is a subtle thing but if you go ahead to Montgomery's early 00s recordings the guitar just doesn't sound like this. Kinda like being wrapped up in a warm blanket on a brisk night on a windswept ocean cliff. 

Roy Montgomery - Temple IV

Roy Montgomery - Departing The Body (1995)

I thought this was the best thing he'd ever done back in the 90s. Sure I haven't listened to a new Roy Montgomery LP for twenty years but I reckon this tune woulda been hard to surpass. After shoegaze had bitten the dust in the early 90s you had to go other places to find similarly spirited music. One direction for those who wanted more blissed out guitar shenanigans was the whole space rock and noise-y psych drone scene with labels like Drunken Fish, VHF Records and Kranky. 

I guess Flying Saucer Attack were seen as the avatars for this aesthetic change-up but in reality they were just continuing what had been an underground scene for many years with particular strongholds in New Zealand and America. This aesthetic had been particularly strong in the recent past with labels like Xpressway, Siltbreeze and Ajax flying the flag for no-fi diy psych drone ambient noise. 

Roy Montgomery had been around for 15 years as part of the infamous NZ band The Pin Group. He was destined to be somewhat immortal after The Pin Group's single Ambivalence was the first ever release on the soon to be iconic Flying Nun label in 1981. 

Fast forward to the mid 90s and among Kranky's first 10 releases were three albums that included Montgomery: Dadamah's This Is Not A Dream, Dissolve's That That Is... Is (Not) and his second solo album Temple IV. So he was definitely a pivotal figure in this milieu. 

Departing The Body was on Temple IV which was Kranky catalogue number KRANK 009. Back when Kranky was still the best kept secret in town before they went overground and signed alt-rock blockbuster groups Godspeed You Black Emperor & Low. Temple IV is just Montgomery, his guitar, some fx and a four track. He created an idiosyncratic, warm, mesmerising and evocative sound. Montgomery's personal musical vision, despite having some superficial similarities to contemporaneous groups on these labels, was not really like anybody else's at the time.

Roy Montromery - Jaguar Meets Snake (1995)

This one's pretty bloody good too. Temple IV is chock-a-block full of splendid lo-fi four track jams. 

Roy Montgomery - Fantasia On A Theme By Sandy Bull (1996)

This was a pretty monumental tripped out psychedelic improv jam back in the day. It still sounds pretty fuckin choice mate! How he keeps up the momentum up for over 20 minutes is quite a talent. This was on the epic triple LP compilation Harmony Of The Spheres on Drunken Fish. Montgomery featured alongside other space cadets Jessamine, Charalambides, Bardo Pond, Loren Conners and Flying Saucer Attack each doing a side long jam. 

Astrobrite

THE 90s ARCHIVE COMPILATIONS

Astrobrite - Crasher

Well that's undeniably impressive. A lost monster of late shoegaze that got found.

 Ok so this is Scott Cortez the mastermind behind LovesLiesCrushing with his other 90s project Astrobrite. In the actual 90s I was not aware he had another group. I mean they existed somewhere in America in the 90s releasing only a coupla singles and a handful of hand dubbed limited run cassettes. It's pretty amazing that this tune, recorded in 1995, remained on an obscure fan mail out tape until it turned up on the cd compilation Crush in 2001. 

The rest of Crush is culled from his 1995 tape archive. If you worship at the alter of Glider, Tremelo, JAMC, Ultra Vivid Scene, anything that sounds like Alan Moulder recorded it and you want more, Crush is for you. 

Astrobrite - Orange Creamsickle 

In 2004 Scott Cortez was raiding his archive again. This time he excavated tunes from Astrobrite's first couple of years 1993/94. The result was the compilation Pinkshinyultrablast which was issued on the Japanese label Vinyl Junkie Recordings. 

Pinkshinyultrablast's got plenty of noise-pop/shoegaze shenanigans plus tinges of pop, psych and glam. It's all about the sound design though, his unique organisation of sound. Cortez moves around his dense sonic layers like few rock musicians do. He got the memo from To Here Knows When and ran with it. Sounds are often placed alongside one another for juxtaposition purposes as opposed to being blended. It's all about the contrast of textures and tones, unconventional EQing, odd sound-field placement etc. all intuitively crafted for a rare immersive listening experience.

Along with MBV, JAMC, Cocteau Twins, Durutti Column, Japan, John Hassell, Fripp, Belew et al. his other major influence is film sound design and soundtracks.  

It has been noted that perhaps Fennesz was influenced by Cortez's unique approach to sound.

 

Astrobrite - Lollipop

Another one from Pinkshinyultrablast. Quite a spectacular sonic onslaught. Pop hooks doused in distorted noise. That's noise-pop.

Astrobrite - Green Duster and Mazinga

In 2011 Scott Cortez raided his 90s archive once again and came up with the compilation Boombox Supernova. He calls it a "lost album of trademark blurry fuzzed out drone from the early years, circa 94-98". Who am I to disagree. This is some of the vaguest most bleached out shoegaze ever. Boombox Supernova isn't a rock record like the previously mentioned collections Crush & Pinkshinyultrablast are. The tracks here are like the cosmic ambient interludes from Loveless or maybe what you would expect a totally blown out 1984 Robin Guthrie demo to sound like. Fleeting treble-y wisps of ethereal fog. I actually think it's the least derivative of the three 90s archive albums that Astrobrite have released and it's my favourite.

 

Boombox Supernova - Astrobrite

The stellar title track.

Lovesliescrushing - Bloweyelashwish

Crushing

You can tell this is from 92 or 93. It's just before the last remaining stragglers of the second wave succumb to a divergent crossroads and intermingle further flavours to dilute the purity of their shoegazery. At this moment though it's just an unadulterated distorted dream haze with a disorienting undertow. To get such an incredible sound out of a 4 track Scott Cortez musta be some kind of whizz. 

The awfully named Lovesliescrushing were an American shoegaze duo. I remember this cd from the 90s because an ex-girlfriend had it and the clunky aesthetics of the project used to capture my attention. It was just not quite right, almost a parody, with all these frou-frou song titles with words joined together (like the band's name) ie. babysbreath, darkglassdolleyes, youreyesimmaculate, bloweyelashwish etc. Perhaps it now has ironic charm. Having said that I think the cover is a pretty cool 4AD knockoff. 

Anyway LLC were very competent with their My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau-y replicas. It's like we're listening to this wall of sound from inside the amp. They were admirably on sonic point but there was something a bit too distant about their approach though. When you listen to Kevin Shields and Belinda Butcher you feel like you know where they're at however Lovesliescrushing seem a bit cold and aloof. Then again perhaps being slightly alien was the point.

The spectacular sounding bloweyelashwish (1994) LP has its fans though and has had several reissues over the years making it a cult item amongst the shoegazery fraternity.

Iwantyou

I like how Lovesliescrushing don't only just adhere to the Loveless template. This fabulous track takes its inspiration from the rumbling dubby bass of Debbie Goodge circa My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything and Feed Me With Your Kiss EP. An entire album in this style might have been mind blowing but the rest of the tunes mostly stick to a highly distorted Loveless & Cocteaus through the lens of Slowdive recipe with even the occasional hint of prog. 

If you're into your superfluous shoegaze and just need way more of it in your life, then bloweyelashwish is probably gonna be for you if it isn't already.

Closedown - Nearfield (1994)

Closedown - Bumblebee 

Sometimes it's hard to know whether a shoegaze band is just poor at imitating My Bloody Valentine or if they really were just trying be an ultra-pallid tribute to Chapterhouse. And essentially it doesn't matter because you're either in or out when it comes to superfluous Johnny come lately 90s shoegazers. You know who the legends, innovators and inspirations are but you just want more and sometimes any old lazy fx worship (and singers so beyond ethereal they are but wisps in their very own Cocteau wind) will do.

I previously thought Closedown were the ultimate pale Slowdive imitators but you know what? Re-listening to them again recently there seems to be something a little bit special about this 90s LA band. Read into that what what you will. Their Nearsfield cd is a late shoegaze gem. If the crappy three instrumental tracks, with the terrible space-y synth that made them sound like a K-Tel Pink Floyd, had been removed they might have become legendary. Suffice to say their self styled primitive Eno bandmate shoulda been talked out of his silly experiments. The rest of the tunes however just flow along in lovely waves and a daydream haze. Nice.

MISSING SONG

Closedown - Moon

A heavenly oceanic rock jam of the highest order. Ultimate tone.

Closedown - Red Oval

A dubby bass swirls beneath an insidious hypnotic swell, suddenly a maelstrom is upon you. Peak shoegazery.

Closedown - Mouth

What a mesmerising trip out into the interstellar waves of the cosmic vortex.

Closedown - Empyreal

Their coulda-been pop moment. 

Closedown - Transmission

Rays of light glisten on the ocean during the new dawn of the earth...er sorry not sorry.

Song To The Siren/Mysteries Of Love

When push comes to shove Liz Fraser lead singer of The Cocteau Twins (& guest singer here with This Mortal Coil) will always be my favourite singer, she's just the best. I mean Patsy Cline, Sam Cook & Elvis were great singers but they were me dad's. Liz was ours, she was from the 80s, had sometimes embarrassing fashion, had questionable hair but had greatness to outclass any singer who'd gone before. She's held the crown for a long time now, since my high school days when I discovered her on the telly in the 80s with either this video or The Cocteau Twins's Pearl-Dewdrops Drops. 

Cocteau Twins were pretty underground in the Antipodes in the mid-80s but finally in 1988 they got a bit of a promotional push from whoever was looking after the 4AD catalogue in Australia at the time. I recall Blue Bell Knoll not just getting an album review in the usual rock papers but Aussie culture/lifestyle magazines as well. 

I remember it used to be a thing, with articles about the Cocteau Twins, to see how many times the hack would use the word ethereal or if they could even abstain from using it. Now the kids have called an entire sub-genre ethereal-wave or some shit. The Cocteaus probably being the prototype-band for the sub-genre. Hey I'm not gonna use it but the kids who weren't there 35 or 40 years ago are. 

Anyway This Mortal Coil's Song To The Siren is the tune David Lynch couldn't afford the rights to for Blue Velvet so he got together with Julee Cruise and Angelo Badalamenti to create a replica. 

It's a bit like how Smells Like Teen Spirit was a Pixies tribute. Sure some of the elements are there but they made the Pixies aesthetic all their own. That's how I feel about Mysteries Of Love, some of the constituent parts of This Mortal Coil's Song To The Siren are there but they also created something totally different. Like Nirvana did, Cruise, Badalamenti & Lynch commercialised the 4AD blueprint for maximum success that their inspiration could have only ever dreamed of.

Slowdive - Machine Gun

(1993)

It's sometimes hard to ascertain if shoegazers were influenced by Julee Cruise or not. However Cruise and shoegazers share a primary influence that being The Cocteau Twins. When David Lynch couldn't get the rights to This Mortal Coil's 1983 single Song To The Siren he put together a project to create a facsimile of that tune. So Lynch joined forces with Cruise and Angelo Badalamenti to create Mysteries Of Love for the film Blue Velvet in 1986. Song To The Siren was basically the Cocteaus under another moniker.

It's obvious Rachel and the band also loved other female led groups My Bloody Valentine and Siouxsie & The Banshees then who knows probably c86/cutie stuff, maybe Strawberry Switchblade, Primitives, Talulah Gosh and/or Shop Assistants perhaps. 

Julee Cruise - Into The Night

(1989)

The fascinating thing about this, is that Julee Cruise was a show tunes belter. Previous to meeting David Lynch she was infamous for doing an off broadway show where she played Janis Joplin. Cruise pulls off the ethereal delicacy on this stunning vocal track with great aplomb. Badalamenti's ominous pitch-black tone with those hypnotic synths that keep spiralling deeper and deeper into the darkness make this delightfully unsettling. Dream pop or dream-like is actually a fitting description (unlike a lot of so called dream pop) for this tune as it feels like endlessly falling backwards into the night sky like you know...a dream.

"Shadows fall so blue"

Labradford - Mas

(1995)

The mysterious, haunting and eerie sounds of the best American post-rock band Labradford were heavily influenced by Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks soundtrack. The entire brilliant cd A Stable Reference (1995) wouldn't exist without Twin Peaks and that's a good thing here. Hey there are other elements too particularly minimalism, Morricone damage, ambient and kosmische. Labradford created such a devastating panoramic sound, it was impossible to ignore. The engineering on this...

TWIN PEAKS - Slow Speed Orchestra 3 (Black Lodge Rumble)

Angelo Badalamenti: One of the most influential musicians of the last 30+ years. The influence of his Twin Peaks soundtrack is vast and immeasurable. The impact of this work can be heard across genres such as experimental, shoegaze, ambient, techno, post-rock, dream pop, soundtracks, Americana, indie, hauntology, industrial, black/doom metal, hypnagogia, hip-hop and much more.  

In 2011 it was all Christmases come at once for Twin Peaks fanatics as David Lynch was dropping the motherlode of Badalamenti's music on us via his website with The Twin Peaks Archives. The archive was a mammoth undertaking that ended up being 212 tracks that was nearly 10 hours of music. We got to hear almost every track used in the show and the prequel movie that had not been included on the commercially released soundtrack cds. Finally some of the darkest and most experimental pieces of music/sound design were officially available for the fanatics to devour in high quality audio for the first time.

It's interesting that Lynch used half speed, slow speed and backwards versions of Badalamenti tracks in the actual show. 

The atmosphere created on Black Lodge Rumble is something else quite beyond pop music. Dark ambient, atmospheric black metal and drone musicians would forever be chasing such a fraught and deep sound. 

Thomas Köner - Andenes

THOMAS KÖNER - ANDENES (1992)

Does it get more 90s than Thomas Köner? I fucking loved him from the moment I first read about him, I think in Lime Lizard magazine. When I finally got the Tiemo cd I was not disappointed. Supreme distant atmospheric glacial rumbles that were so evocative, so tenebrous, so beautiful and pretty eerie too. How on earth was he making this seemingly organic music? It still puzzles me today as to how he achieved this. I think it would de-mystify the entire Köner listening experience if I actually found out how these soundscapes were generated. Was it even music? No melody, rhythm and barely even any sound events. I mean there was sound but what even was it? There were deep reverberations, an eternal resonant hum... Anyway this is still astounding, so plug in your headphones, isolate yourself and get ready to immerse yourself in the splendid creations of this master sound designer.  

Deathprod - Treetop Drive Part 2

DEATHPROD - Treetop Drive Part 2 (1994)

This achieves so much with so little. It feels wrong to say this is rudimentary but it is in the very best way possible. These stripped down elemental electronics have maximum impact. I can't even imagine what is making this sublime ominous racket, probably some kind of DIY homemade electronic gear. This is the sorta thing I always imagine when people talk about minimalism not some wanky orchestral bollocks, just primitive repetitive circuitry shit that is so evocative and actually uncanny. 

The entire Treetop Drive cd still excites me to this day.

[Post-Research]

Apparently Helge Sten aka Deathprod called his bag of electronic tricks the "Audio Virus". 

The Caretaker - Everywhere At The End Of Time

What the fuck?

After writing about Burial recently and declaring him THE musician of the Millennium, I've been challenging that declaration in my head. The only other real contender I can come up with is The Caretaker, I think. Although the entire premise of this idea is bit of a pointless folly innit?, perhaps belonging more to the 20th century. While looking for an audio clip to use in this discussion I came across a phenomenon I had no idea was occurring. 

How on earth has The Caretaker's six and a half hour demented experimental masterpiece Everywhere At The End Of Time had over 28 million views on youtube in less than four years? What the hell is going on? Why has a 6 volume concept album about dementia found a teenage following in the 2020s? 

I would have thought The Caretaker was the kind of artist to sell a few thousand copies of each record in every western capital city, retaining a worldwide underground cult status. However it's not the 90s anymore and my brain is not really fit for analysis of this millennium. There are all sorts of ways music becomes known now not just from the radio, music videos and movie soundtracks like in the 80s. I mean I do know about downloads, going viral and youtube algorithms but I'm not fully across what the fuck tik-tok challenges, creepypastas and modding are. Nor do I particularly care.

It seems someone with a black sense of humour went on tik-tok during the lockdowns in 2020 and challenged the kids to endure over six hours of largely ominous atmospheric noise that at the extremes can be either disturbing or lovely. Somehow it caught on like wildfire and a perfect storm coalesced on the interwebs to catapult The Caretaker to blockbuster status.

Along with this challenge other factors including youtube breakdown videos, modding, (cover)art critiques, exhibitions, urban legends, supreme nerdy fandom, bandcamp algorithms, parody albums, tribute albums, fan art albums etc. contributed to The Caretaker becoming widely known on the 2020s internet. It's particularly interesting that none of the individual videos of each of the 6 volumes have reached a million views but the video for the entire 6 volumes combined has reached 28 million views. That's pretty wild.

I can't recall if I ever heard Everywhere At The End Of Time without the knowledge that it was supposed to be a journey into senility. I probably would have thought of it as some kinda beast betwixt lovely and haunted. Once you know the premise for the record existing though you cannot un-know that fact and it will always taint your listening experience. However his previous work had been about nostalgia, haunted memory, decay, amnesia, regret, brain disorders etc. so I guess it wasn't a stretch for my mind to be thinking about the intended themes of this album. 

This ambitious project is a meticulously constructed sonic world brilliantly depicting the brain devolving through a myriad of states from calm, blissful, confused, nostalgic, despondent, disoriented, empty and terrified to eventually disintegrating into oblivion. 

Everywhere At The End Of Time: Stage 5 was my favourite upon release as noted in my 2018 round-up. Now I think Volume 4 is the one for me personally. I've also found a new appreciation for the first three LPs in this set particularly the third volume. The first two LPs in this series are usually seen as less noteworthy because they go over similar ground covered on The Caretaker's first three albums (Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom (99), A Stairway To The Stars (02) & We'll All Go Riding On A Rainbow (03)) but they actually give a new perspective on that trademarked scratchy music hall style to align with the MO of Everywhere At The End Of Time. All records in this set are great and an integral part of the listening experience which should entail listening to them in order to get the full effect. However each volume can be listened to by itself as they stand up on their own merits which is a testament to the vision of The Caretaker aka Leyland Kirby. 

The bittersweet Glimpses Of Hope In Trying Times is the outstanding track from Stage 2. It breaks up the lovely Ballroom nostalgia that has gone before and foreshadows the ominous demise soon to be experienced on later records in the set. 

Nash The Slash - The Chase

(1979)

Another tune that is new to me but it turns out I've heard music written and performed by Nash The Slash before as he was a member of Canadian space-prog-pop group FM, appeared on Gary Numan records and did the soundtrack to 90s cult movie Highway 61. Novelty music lovers might remember him as the dude dressed up as a mummy with sunglasses who played excellent electric mandolin and electric violin. 

Riveting synth-y car chase theme goodness. 

"fun, fun, fun on the..."

The Last Four Digits - I Have Rental Car

Heard this tune for the first time today. The band name is vaguely familiar like maybe I learnt about them back in the heyday of Mutant Sounds (?)... anyway back in 1980 they released their one and only record but this is from their unreleased album recorded in 81 or 82. The tracks from these sessions didn't see light of day until 2017 when Timechange Records released the compilation Don't Move.

All the elements of the time are present in this good fun melange: Synth-punk, no-wave, post-punk, new-wave Beefheart damage, miscellaneous etc. to give us something like Fire Engines meets DNA meets Voigt 465 or something like that... 

Burial - Shutta

(2007)

It's like post-punk and dub-tech working in collusion to stop a zippy speed garage tune escaping by smothering it in darkness. 

Sometimes I wonder why would we choose to listen to this over an actual speed garage tune from say 1998. 

Is gloomifying a genre anything to be proud of? Is this just kinda pin pricking the hardcore/rave elation balloon and giving back in to 80s miserableism?

Is this the only way for miserable rockist/indie/goth types to enjoy 2 step garage? ie. with all the fun taken out, dysphoric speed garridge if you will.

On the other side of the coin it's in the great British tradition of post-punk dub, sound system culture, Wild Bunch/Massive Attack/Tricky milieu and the darkside of the hardcore continuum innit?

Cracking tune right. One of his best. 

Bob Dylan - Hurricane

Does anyone ever say Bob is ecstatic? Because that's what this tune is, totally. The chorus-y bits where the music drops out and it's just the congas with the raucous singing, from Bob & backing vocalists Ronee Blakley & Steephen Soles, is just the ticket, innit? The energetic delivery of this incredible narrative is so inspired. Not so much all about the meaning of the lyrics but also the sound of the words, the way they fit together, the rambunctious manner in which they're performed and spontaneously captured on tape.

Congas are played by the mysterious Luther Rix. It's weird that millions of us know those congas so well but very few of us know the name of the man responsible. Like we should all know the trumpet guy from All You Need Is Love or the the co-vocalist of Gimme Shelter. Actually I'm sure I used to know who that was and I'm pretty sure I saw a mini documentary on that trumpeter once. We could run into Luther Rix in the street and we wouldn't even know he was the legend who played those furious congas on Hurricane.  

LUTHER RIX with BOB

*This post was supposed to be about the criminalisation of words, social media censorship and freedom of speech but I just got tangled up in Bob.

Burial - Antidawn

After making such a grand statement about Burial in my Best Of 2022 list ie. that he's undeniably THE musical visionary of the 21st century, I''m starting to interrogate that line of thinking (surely I forgot The Caretaker). It was very easy to just automatically write such an assertion as though it were true and believe that most thinkers about such things around the world would also obviously agree. 

Surely Burial aka William Bevan's feeling the pressure of such thinking. It's probably why he hasn't called a release an album since 2007 despite several so called EPs being LP length. I mean last year he had to add EP at the end of the title for his Antidawn release, which is 5 minutes longer than Sgt Pepper's, so we all didn't call it his 3rd album. Is he too protective of his own critical reputation (like My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields was in the 90s)? Is he scared that calling his album an album will ensure it gets too closely scrutinised?

It's an interesting ploy that I think has perhaps backfired upon him. Now we all just think Burial's work is insignificant because it's just his miniature cast offs not to be taken all that seriously. If Antidawn had indeed been called an album I think it would have garnered a lot more interest and that definitely would have been deserved. It may well have been hailed as his 3rd masterpiece. Even if it was only hailed as that by half of the usual critics it still would have been a better result than the dwindling interest it actually got.

Also is it up to him to call an album an album? We should have all just called it an album because it is an album.

Speaking of critics. Some of the laziest and most absolutely wrong bullshit gets tossed around in the name of critique and analysis of Burial: Ambient, insubstantial, not engaging, formless, not an easy listen etc. ad nauseam for fuck's sake!  

It's not fucking ambient dickheads. None of this sound is to be ignored. It's bloody operatic, too emotional, full of sensations many of which are perhaps too liminal for articulation, feelings are switched on and off sometimes in a furious flurry and Antidawn is fucking anthemic! Anthemic: That sounds anti-ambient to me.

It's not fucking Insubstantial! Just because it doesn't have a riff, a break, a bass drop, a bloody verse/chorus/verse or a song structure that represents a god damn pre-existing genre on autopilot doth not maketh this record insubstantial. Antidawn is so substantial it fucks with me for 44 minutes, toys with my soul for 44 minutes, transfixes me for 44 minutes, loses me in its delectable sound-world for 44 minutes, nothing else matters for that 44 minutes.

It's not fucking formless. In fact it is intricately structured to a fastidious degree to give us a spectrum of dramatic effects. Wild swinging jaw dropping dramatic arcs that have the hairs standing up on the back of your neck... now that doesn't sound particularly formless does it? 

It's not fucking not engaging! Antidawn is so compelling it's like your favourite, best, most watched movie. Every little detail is important, to be savoured and pored over. The entire LP is best heard from go to whoa. It's so striking it has me hanging on every tiny spec of sound and all of the vibes for er... 44 minutes.

It's not fucking not an easy listen! Just pump this sucker up to 11 and bam where did those 44 minutes go? 

Burial - South London Boroughs

(2006)

Skeletal, spectral, skeletal spectral or spectral skeletal it's all what this tune is. South London Boroughs is a skelington of a tune. As pointed out by others in the past, you fill in this tune in your mind with whatever elements you think are missing. A bit like a mirage. That ghost of a Rufige Kru mentasm stab looms large and sends over ten years of 'ardcore musical memories flooding vaguely back. The rhythm is just buggered, quite knackered. I think it was either Mark Fisher or Kode 9 who said you fill in the rest the rest of the beat to compensate for this deficiency. It's like you're a beat doctor fixing up the gimpy rhythm with your mind. The tromp l'oeil effect makes this an illusory tune whichever way you look at it.

Also isn't this what Scorn sounded like circa 94/95?

Burial: Nite Train

(2006)

I love how no critic ever mentions broken beat when talking about Burial. Sorry but he's influenced by broken beat. Dubstep fans who want to claim him as their own call him dubstep. While dubstep haters who love Burial claim he has nothing to do with dubstep. Anyway this track is now 18 fucking years old and it's Basic Channel style dub-tech intersecting with ghostly UK garage innit? I like it whatever you wanna call it...

Juaneco Y Su Combo - Linda Nena

Once you've gotten into Peruvian psych cumbia via the instrumentals from the late 60s/early 70s the next step is to follow the genre as it progresses through the 70s and into the 80s as it becomes much more song orientated. Then mysteriously in the late 80s it abruptly falls off the face of the earth altogether.

Linda Nena from 1976 is one of the most infectious anthems of the genre. It's got Peruvian pop hit written all over it and I guess you gotta to have a crack at singing it even though you don't understand the language because of its irresistible hooks. Once again the rhythm is out-fucking-standing and is just as key to the tune as the vocals are. Peak Peruvian cumbia!

Russian Sonic Microwave Attack or Cricket Mating Sounds or ???

Six or seven years ago in a doctor's waiting room I remember seeing on a mainstream television channel reports of people in an embassy office block in Havana being deliberately targeted by sonic attacks from the Russian military. I thought "Really is this shit real?" It put me in mind of shonky old sci-fi movies, The Twilight Zone, That's Incredible, shonky old sci-fi movies, The KLF, ye olde kids's books about spies, Hawkwind etc. but I never heard about these stories again. The other day however, while not feeling well, I went through Glenn Greenwald's entire rumble channel and this incredible post popped up from about a year ago. I don't think the CIA could have envisaged where this convoluted narrative would end up. 

It's just a shame that this entertaining and bizarre tale had to come from the nefarious actions of the state and establishment corporate media collaborating in a fraud with intentions to deceive & manipulate us: the public, the people, the citizens. We're just trying to have a good day and yet...

Midnight Cleaners - Cleaners From Venus

Midnight Cleaners from 1982 is probably the most well known Cleaners From Venus album. This was originally a tape only release. Martin Newell’s diy post-punk lo-fi psychedelic pop is glorious. 

Midnight Cleaners starts out with doomy basslines, then drums, glockenspiel & synths follow through via his bedroom's echo chamber. 

Wow the splendid melodiousness of this never ceases to amaze. In a parallel universe... 

When they hit their stride with superior jangles, angular tangents and ecstatic bursts of majestic bittersweet melodic pop, it’s almost too much.

A month or six ago Martin Newell announced on instagram that this wonderfully blissful anthem had hit 6 million streams on Spotify. Not bad for an unknown 80s band who were always in between scenes. A true cult pop phenomena finally reaching critical mass forty years later.

This. Just when you're thinking this is some Saxamophone instrumental noodle with amazing bass a verse comes in, then bang just the ecstatic everything. Anthem!

Martin's got wistful deep within his bones down to his socks. This is psychedelic raindrops. Cleaners From Venus pack an emotional punch that few bands ever do, all the while being quintessentially English. 

This despondent paean to drudgery, gentrification and dystopia is quaint by today's standards. Nostalgia for nostalgia. If only dystopia was this cute.

"The sun unfolds but it never shines" The glorious gloom of it all. 

Not to forget the dubbed out saxanophone jamz. At this point they were only comparable to The Homosexuals at their most sublime.

Like most of the population I didn’t discover Cleaners From Venus during the 80s. I came across them in the 90s via the compilation cd that came with the book Unknown Legends Of Rock 'n' Roll. Then in the early 00s I found a shonky cdr copy of Midnight Cleaners in a 2nd hand record shop in Melbourne. Anyway it wasn’t until thirty years after the initial release that Midnight Cleaners got issued for the first time on vinyl and yeah I know you really only need this on tape or a shitty cd but I hope Martin got some money from my purchases of his reissues.

best of 2022

RECORDS/TAPES/CDs

Human Remains - Robert Haigh

If A City Is Set Upon A Hill - Current 93

Music For The Death Cult Church - Controlled Death

Death Synth Box - Controlled Death

Antidawn - Burial

Expressed, I noticed Silence - M Geddes Gengras

Is there any point in writing here anymore now that ChatGBT has arrived? The year end round up was always the biggest post of the year with thousands of people reading it. In the last two years though visits to CardrossManiac2 have waned to just a trickle of people. This has only happened since I've added the occasional post criticising current political absurdities. I do not toe the retarded party-line orthodoxies of Google plus I openly call them corrupt so like they used to always suspend me on twitter they've probably demoted my posts, pretty much shadow banned me and buried the blog. No anti-establishment sentiments allowed! Having said that does anyone read blogs anymore? I know I don't, so...

It was another year of being out of action most of the time. Only a handful of albums from 2022 really register in my brain right now so go elsewhere for a more thorough overview of current music. It's hard to imagine that it was only as recent as 2019 that 45 new records were mentioned in my year end list. The above list is in no particular order. I have vague recollections of enjoying a few other new albums in 2022 by the likes of Pan American, Sulk Rooms, Rangers, N Chambers, Huerco S, Deepchord and that's about it. It's always touch and go as to whether Moon Wiring Club make it into the list. The mail has been slow to Australia this Christmas so they miss out as I'm yet to hear Medieval Ice Cream. I didn't even realise Actress and Diamanda Galas had new albums out in 2022 so... oh wait I forgot, Kemper Norton released two excellent tapes of experimental rural psychedelia/drone-y dark ambient. The highlight being the traditional tune My Love Is Gone at the end of the Rife cassette. 

The music innovation era died with the great 20th century, maybe there was a slight afterglow into the 00s up until about Burial's record. Plus the odd flicker here and there in the 00s with Young Thug, Future and the like. I now realise I was so lucky to live through the 70s, 80s and 90s...

Current 93's David Tibet

The first four above albums were made by artists who are reaching late career peaks after getting started in the 80s. I think both Robert Haigh and Current 93 have retired so these might be their final offerings. Robert Haigh the mastermind behind the genius jungle act Omni Trio, continues to excel with another impeccable LP of exquisitely melodic piano vignettes. Current 93's If A city Is Set Upon A Hill has David Tibet at the top of his game as he recites his doomed mystic verse with startling restraint and age-d charm. Legendary Japanese rock star noise performance artist Maso Yamazaki aka Masonna is in the midst of an absolute purple patch with his dark ambient cosmic noise project Controlled Death. This blaze of creativity that started in 2018 has now amassed over 24 releases and has gone unnoticed by everybody in music media as far as I can tell. Get on board it's a gas! Antidawn is Burial at his blissful, beautiful and beat-less best. Burial aka William Bevan aka the most idiosyncratic and innovative musical visionary of the 21st century reminds us why he holds this undeniable title with an elegiac soundtrack for 2022. Funnily enough M Geddes Gengras's ace cosmic-ambient jam Expressed, I Noticed Silence is the most retro record on the list yet Gengras is the youngest of the lot. His career began in the mid-00s in the hypnagogic era.

I heard no pop radio or any music radio for that matter in 2022.

I did hear some newly made jungle...what's the point? It's the new garage rock revival except for me it's worse. I wasn't there in the 60s so the 80s revivals of garage and psych were fine with me. Eventually I would become fully acquainted with what they were referencing and my record collection today is more a reflection of that than the 80s 60s revivalists. Still can't go past The Stems though! So this new jungle shit just stinks to high heaven because I was right there when jungle originally emerged and then through subsequent beat permutations etc. Nu-jungle, or whatever the fuck it is, as a signpost for youngsters of where to go back to to find when the amazing burst of innovation and excitement happened is fine but come on people beyond 40 you know the score. My dad didn't hear the Black Crowes in the 90s and say "Gee Tim have you heard this terrific new group. They're like an exciting new take on The Rolling Stones. Don't miss out on these amazing new innovations" No, he knew better. 

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REISSUES/COMPILATIONS/ARCHIVES

Classic Productions by Surin Phaksiri 2: Molam Gems 1960s - 80s - Various

Wamano Groove Shakuhhachi & Koto Jazz Funk 76 - Kiyoshi Yamaya, Toshiko Yonekawa, Kifu Mitsuhashi

Peru Selvatico: Sonic Expedition Into The Peruvian Amazon 1972 - 86 - Various

Cumbias Psicodelicas: Ayahuasca Volume 2 - Various

Sonido Verde De Moyobamba - Sonido Verde De Moyobamba

The Afrosound Of Colombia Volume 3 - Various

Orkos - Maha

Mawood - Abdel Halim Hafiz

Mogadishu's Finest The Al Uruba Sessions - Iftin Band

Sense May Come - Controlled Bleeding

Neptune's Lair - Drexciya

Convextion - Convextion

A Spare Tabby At The Cat's Wedding (LP Edition) - Moon Wiring Club

Last year I had something like over 30 records in me reissues/compilations list. This year I've got not one disco compilation and only one reissue of Japanese music. Apart from my lack of paying attention, there did seem to be not as many enticing releases from the usual "reissue label" suspects. This game goes in cycles though doesn't it?

EM Records continue to excavate terrific tunes from 20th century Thai pop genres luk thung & molam. This year we got a double vinyl dose of exquisite molam productions by Surin Phaksiri. These splendid tracks were all originally specifically released on 7" vinyl during the cassette era of Thai music. All songs are getting the reissue treatment for the first time on this historic release that has been years in the making.

There was at least three choice Peruvian psych-cumbia archival releases in 2022. I don't understand why the complete 70s catalogues of legendary groups like Los Destellos, Juaneco y Su Combo, Los Orientales de Paramonga, Los Wembler's de Iquitos, Los Mirlos et al. don't get the comprehensive reissue treatment. I would have thought this would have happened after those Roots Of Chicha compilations came out in the 00s. We have to be content to get a track here and there on a compilation or if you're lucky a greatest hits collection. It is impossibly rare to see a reissue of an LP for a Peruvian cumbia group. Anyway we get two compilations of Amazonian cumbia from the great Analog Africa label and a second dose of Cumbia Psicodelicas from Peruvian label Repsychled (get it?).

Tresor reissued Drexciya's 90s electro masterpiece Neptune's Lair. I've always said it was the last great 90s album and it belongs in everyone's collection. Get the cd as the vinyl version doesn't have all the tracks.

Maybe It's just listlessness from a combination of the sweltering 40 degree heat and anaemia but I really cannot get enthused to write any further. Perhaps more on a better day...

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ON THE TELLY

THE SOPRANOS

The best show on telly twenty three years ago was 2021's best show and 2022's best show and so on for eternity. This year I've realised my memory's so far gone that I can probably watch Sopranos every year until I die which is handy because current television and movies are bullshit.   

SLOW HORSES

We tried to watch so many new tv shows but I think they all got switched off during the first episode because they were bollocks so it was lucky that we got two seasons in one year of the only watchable new show in 2022. Spies hey?

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WAR IN UKRAINE CAUSES DEAD HUMAN PEOPLE CRISIS 

*Some US officials have estimated that as many as 200 000 human people have already died in this proxy war. At least 7000 civilians are dead including 428 kids. That's 428 DEAD CHILDREN: These are WAR CRIMES! It all could have been easily avoided. Our governments have got blood on their hands and it's a revolting tragedy! Lets stop support of this festival of death, help save human people from being killed and demand a ceasefire now. 

GANGSTA BOO 1979 - 2023

KOOPSTA KNICCA feat. GANGSTA BOO - NOW I'M HI PT. 2

I coincidentally listened to Koopsta Knicca's Da Devil's Playground tape in the wee small hours last night, finding out afterwards via instagram that Gangsta Boo had died. Weird. Is this a slightly remixed version of Now I'm So Hi Part 2...I dunno...but it's fucking wicked. That early smoked out lo-fi Triple 6 sound and then the verses so nonchalantly delivered by the supreme Boo. I've noted several times over the years that the ladies rapping on 90s Memphis devil shit is the perfect combination like peanut butter & chocolate. Gangsta Boo is the queen of Memphis: The Original.

Boo w Scarecrow & Crunchy

I'm outa love with modern pop music which includes hip-hop but it's not Gangsta Boo's fault she influenced a bunch of less than interesting rap sell outs. Apparently she was actually well aware of her artistic impact, stating recently that she was the blueprint for current rap cadences female & male. And she's totally fucking correct! Her output is awesome without post context though. You don't need to measure her talent by what she influenced. Her recordings speak for themselves. She was often astounding. So RIP Gangsta Boo aka Lola Mitchell: You are legendary!

I'm sure many of you out there might be off hip-hop of late but that does not take away from the achievements of the great rap of the 80s & 90s. It became highly elevated pop art. The 90s Memphis style was one of the best, most unique and innovative. It still remains a cult underground thing to this day despite Boo having had platinum selling hits with Three Six Mafia and guesting on Outcast and Lil' Jon records. She most recently appeared on a Run The Jewels LP but Lady Boo's not a household name like the people who cribbed her style, commercialised it and are now world famous.

The Backyard Posse/Triple 6 Mafia/Three 6 Mafia crew are legendary. They were particularly noteworthy during the 1990s Memphis Rap Underground era, including all the 90s dark lo-fi affiliate mixtapes, albums and productions. Gangsta Boo was just 15 when she joined Three Six Mafia and was there droppin' verses for their run of albums from the cult classic debut Mystic Stylez in 95 to the million selling When The Smoke Clears in 00 (All the tracks posted on this page are from the lo-fi horror era when she was 15 or 16). 

THREE SIX MAFIA - I THOUGHT YOU KNEW

This! 

Dj Paul & Juicy J lay on the horror soundtrack samples adding extra menace to the creepiness of this pitch black ode to crime where Lady Boo is joined by Crunchy Black. The devil's daughter Gangsta Boo was only 15!

DJ PAUL & LORD INFAMOUS - GRAB DA GAUGE

The lo-fi psychedelic creepin horror of the early triple six mafia is so so good. DJ Paul & Kingpin Skinny Pimp kill their verses then Gangsta Boo just comes in and effortlessly nails her verse with her cold blooded deadpan flow. 

THREE 6 MAFIA - IN DA GAME

I mean what the actual fuck! This is peak rap attack craft. One of the most astonishing flows in tha game and despite Juicy J, Dj Paul & Scarecrow's best efforts Gangsta Boo cannot be outdone...immortal.

KINGPIN SKINNY PIMP - I DON'T LUV'EM

This is one of DJ Paul & Juicy J's strangest productions. It's a cosmic psych jam of proto-hypnagogic proportions. This scenario is an horrific peak inside the minds of three drug fuelled homicidal maniacs. The psychosis goes deep. It's another incredibly jaw-dropping delivery of a verse from Gangsta Boo. Skinny Pimp is the kingpin but who is the real kingpin? Know what I mean? 

Juaneco y Su Combo 1976

MANGUITO DE SAL

You might initially think "oh this is just ho-hum Peruvian cumbia" but seconds later you will drawn in to the sublime poly-rhythmic vortex then the mesmerising mystical guitars. All of a sudden you are lost in sweet incandescent sound. These are deep Amazonian jamz and Juaneco y Su Combo were at a ceaseless peak.

EL HIPPIE MUCA

Another deep cumbia Amazonica jam with tantalising kaleidoscopic rhythms and those complimentary divine psychedelic guitar tones will have you enraptured. These two tunes are the final tracks of their 1976 LP Linda Nena on Infopesa. Juaneco y Su Combo were at the peak of their powers here and seemingly unstoppable but sadly it all came to a dark and abrupt end. In 1977 five members of the band, including guitarist/main songwriter Noé Fachin, died in a plane crash. Several remaining members would reform the group later and while still very good they never quite recaptured the magic of the Fachen-led era.